


Blinding Reality

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Language, M/M, challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-20
Updated: 2010-03-20
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: graphic violence - Warning
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12731511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: An off world attack brings a new reality for Daniel.





	Blinding Reality

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

Author’s note: Thanks to Taj for the beta help! For those not already in the know…FUBAR is a military acronym that means F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition. Answers the challenge: Daniel knows all kinds of weird stuff that surprises the team because of his time spent ascended. 

 

An off world attack brings a new reality for Daniel.

________________________________________________________________________

 

It was funny the way things could change in almost literally the blink of an eye. Jack had seen it happen more than once. One minute life was tooling right along and you got comfortable enough to think that you could predict how things would turn out. The next it’s all chaos and mayhem and you’re left trying to figure out what the hell happened and how you could have been blindsided so completely and never have suspected a thing. Shouldn’t there be an omen or something? Some kind of cosmic warning that the life you thought you knew was about to be turned on its head and shaken like a snow globe?

They had all learned long ago that stepping through the stargate was effectively taking your life in your hands. Even the best planned mission could go wrong. It was just a fact of life. However, it was a truly rare occurrence when things went completely to hell within the first sixty seconds. 

The mission to PR5116 set a new record for the length of time it took to go from “thumbs up” to complete and utter FUBAR. While Jack wouldn’t wish that kind of catastrophe on anyone at the SGC, he found himself sincerely wishing that his team had been on stand down when that particular gate address had popped up. 

It had started out as a perfectly normal mission and Jack had stepped through the gate never suspecting a thing. Daniel stepped through. Carter stepped through. Teal’c stepped through. The gate disengaged and then the mission went all to pieces. 

The first staff blast hit the gate mere inches from Jack’s head and in a heartbeat he was on the ground, yelling to the rest of the team to take cover. Unfortunately for them there wasn’t really much to hide behind. Carter dove for the ground and started crawling toward the DHD hoping to dial right back out. Teal’c crawled behind the gate and pressed himself against the sand, returning fire, hiding as best he could behind a platform that was only about twelve inches tall, Jack returning fire from behind its two steps.

Jack hadn’t been watching where Daniel went. Like the rest of them he was too busy defending himself against staff blasts. It wasn’t until he had managed to get off several volleys that he started taking a headcount. 

“Carter?” He bellowed over the sound of flying bullets and staff blasts.

“Having trouble getting to the symbols, Sir.” She replied from somewhere behind the DHD.

“Teal’c?” Jack called. “Give her some cover fire, will ya?”

Jack glanced back over his shoulder, peering toward the back corner of the platform, expecting to see Teal’c come crawling out from behind it. Instead what he saw was a pair of legs.

“O’Neill…” Teal’c called.

“Aw hell.” Jack groused, turning his attention away from the staff blasts that were still flying. 

“He is badly injured.” Teal’c pronounced.

“Help Carter.” Jack replied. 

Teal’c continued inching his way around the platform on his belly, taking up Jack’s abandoned position at the steps. Meanwhile Jack crawled around the back of the platform to get a look at Daniel’s injuries. What he saw knocked the wind out of him and for a moment he forgot how to breathe. Daniel’s face was a bloody mess. He’d obviously taken a blast to the head, though the fact that he was still breathing meant it was probably only a glancing blow. Still, it was bad. Horrifically bad. 

This was not happening. This was so not happening. Not when they’d just gotten him back. Damn it to hell’s basement he was not going through this again! 

A pained groan and the movement of Daniel’s arms slapped Jack out of his trance.

“Don’t move.” Jack said over the continued sound of weapons fire as he crawled up next to Daniel. “Carter?!” He bellowed.

“Working on it, Sir.”

“Jack?” Came an agonized croak from Daniel.

“You took at hit, Daniel. Try not to move. We don’t have a lot of cover here.”

“Hurts.” He added unnecessarily, panting and shifting sluggishly in the sand.

“I know. Carter’s working on the gate. Just hang on.”

“Jack.” He repeated through clenched teeth.

“Stay with me, Daniel.” He urged, as a hand reached in his direction. “Right here.” He gripped Daniel’s arm. 

Instantly the groping hand found Jack’s shoulder and grabbed a fist full of his jacket.

“Can’t see.” Daniel panted.

“I know. Carter?!”

“Almost there, Sir. We’re punching symbols in between blasts.”

“We’re almost home, Daniel. Just hold on.” Jack urged.

“…trying…but...” 

“No. No ‘but’. You stay here with me, you understand? You do not have permission to go anywhere. Not yet.”

“That an order?” Daniel groaned.

“Make it a request.” Jack replied. “You ignore too many of my orders.”

Daniel snorted something that might have been a laugh, but was swallowed up by a croak that was half groan, half pained howl as his body arched off the sand.

“Last symbol, Sir.” Carter announced. “Gate’s coming on line…now!” she added, the rush of the wormhole engaging temporarily overpowered the sound of weapons fire.

“Carter, you first.” Jack ordered. “We’ll lay down cover. Get a medical team in the gate room.”

“Sir?”

“Daniel’s hit. Go!”

Shifting his attention from Daniel to the steadily approaching Jaffa, Jack started shooting, sending bullets through the back of the watery event horizon and out the other side. 

“Teal’c. Need your help once she’s through.” He added.

Teal’c stayed in position until Carter had a chance to dive through the gate, Jack clearly able to see her as she ran toward him and then disappeared mere inches from his face, swallowed up in the worm hole. Jack provided cover fire through the event horizon for Teal’c to make it back to the platform.

“I’ll lay down cover, you get him through the gate.” Jack ordered.

“You will need assistance to get to the gate yourself, O’Neill.” Teal’c pointed out.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Using the event horizon to hide their movements, Teal’c hefted a barely conscious Daniel in his arms, carefully settling him across one shoulder, leaving a hand free to use his staff weapon. Crowded closely together, their backs to the gate, Jack and Teal’c fired into the approaching Jaffa and hustled backwards into the event horizon. A fraction of a second later they were stumbling down the gate ramp.

“Close the iris!” Jack barked. “We need a medic!”

“They’re on the way, Sir.” Sam informed him. “How bad is he?”

“Bad.”

Jack and one of the airmen assigned to gate duty helped to carefully roll Daniel off Teal’c’s shoulder and lay him on the ramp just in time for the medical team to arrive, Janet leading the small group.

“What happened, Colonel?” She asked.

“He took a staff blast to the face.”

“Oh my gosh.” Sam gasped when she saw him. 

“Alright, everybody back.” Janet ordered. “I want an IV running wide open and get the portable X-ray. Daniel, can you hear me?”

The answer was a quiet groan.

“Let’s put him in Iso Room 2.” She ordered as they gingerly picked him up and shifted him to the gurney, leaving his pack on the ramp. “Alright let’s go!”

Jack stood, silent and numb as he watched them roll Daniel out of the room.

 

~~~~

 

Janet snapped off her gloves and hit the button for the door, sighing as it slid slowly open. She’d been at this for a long time. Long enough to know when she was in over her head. Daniel had second and third degree burns to his face and would definitely need reconstructive surgery to rebuild his nose and part of one cheek. She’d gotten good at treating burns over the years, but this…this was way beyond her. She needed experts; specifically a plastic surgeon to repair the damage and an ophthalmologist to see what they could do about his eyes. 

And then she needed a drink.

The weapon had burned a path right across Daniel’s face; probably hitting him as he had turned to get away from it. It was more damage than she was qualified to fix and she had no intention of leaving him with a half assed attempt at treating it just so she could keep him in her infirmary. She was protective of Daniel. They all were, but in this case the best place for him was some place other than the SGC infirmary; a place with easy access to any specialists he might need.

Colonel O’Neill met her in the hall as she made her way back toward the main infirmary. He had been in the observation room every minute of the past 3 hours, watching with rapt attention. Because of the burns Daniel was more susceptible to infection so they were keeping his visitors limited to medical staff only for the time being. With his injuries localized and fully bandaged it wasn’t absolutely necessary, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“How is he?” O’Neill asked, looking more tired and worn than she’d seen him in a long time.

“Stable.” She said. “I’ve got him sedated because of the pain.”

Janet shuddered slightly at the déjà vu that particular statement inspired. It wasn’t happen again. Not this time. She wouldn’t allow it.

“What about his eyes?”

“I don’t know, Colonel.” She admitted. “I’m just heading up to brief the General. You might want to come along.”

“I’m not leaving him alone.” He said.

“Alright. I guess I can brief you here.” She replied, motioning toward the observation room, wanting a little privacy for the Colonel if nothing else. “He has severe facial damage, Colonel.” She began. “Second and third degree burns to the entire area and it looks to me like the damage to his eyes is irreversible.”

“That’s not acceptable.” O’Neill growled, jaw clenched.

“I couldn’t agree more.” She sighed. “I’m recommending that we transfer Daniel to the military hospital in Colorado Springs. If nothing else it will give us a second opinion about his condition.”

“What?”

“Daniel deserves the best care we can possibly give him, Sir, and quite frankly I don’t have the expertise in eyes or reconstructive surgery to do a decent job.” She said. “We could bring in experts, but getting base security clearance for them would take time, and time is something Daniel doesn’t have a lot of.”

O’Neill nodded, his eyes on the sleeping figure in the room below.

“It would be easier on everyone if we kept him here.” She admitted. “But it’s not what he needs, and if transferring him to another facility gives him a better chance at recovery then that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Alright.” O’Neill replied quietly, tearing his focus away from Daniel long enough to meet her gaze. “When?”

“Today. As soon as possible.”

O’Neill went back to nodding. Janet patted his arm gently and headed out of the room to brief the General and get his permission to transfer Daniel.

 

~~~~

 

Jack wandered down the hall and past the nurses’ station, waving casually to the staff that was becoming nearly as familiar as Frasier’s. It was Daniel’s fourth day in the medical center and Jack had spent most of that time in the room with him. He’d been drugged out of his mind more often than not, but Jack hadn’t wanted him to wake up alone. It was bad enough that he was in an unfamiliar place and wouldn’t be able to see anyone or anything. He didn’t want Daniel coming out of it to find himself completely surrounded by people he didn’t know; abandoned to strangers.

Jack walked into the room to find him propped up in bed, exactly the way he had been when Jack had left an hour earlier. With is head swathed in bandages it was impossible to tell if Daniel was awake or asleep until he heard something that made him turn his head, in this case, the door to his room opening.

“It’s just me.” Jack announced. 

Daniel nodded. He hadn’t been talking much lately. Without the telltale facial expressions it was hard to gauge his mood. Jack hadn’t realized just how much he had come to depend on them to flesh out the emotions behind Daniel’s reactions. Jack could read a dozen things in his face, in his eyes, but now he was met with a blank slate of gauze and it was like learning Daniel all over again. All Jack had to go on was what he knew about the way Daniel generally approached things, and the way he would be feeling if he were in his shoes. Frankly, quiet and withdrawn seemed a very reasonable response to the whole mess.

This wasn’t just an injury that would need plenty of time to heal. This was more than just learning to adapt. This was big. And it was scary. And it was heartbreaking. And to make things worse Daniel didn’t naturally let his feelings out, preferring to keep them bottled up. He had to be coaxed, prodded, wheedled, cajoled. At the moment he was swimming in a tidal wave of emotion and very little of it was spilling out and Jack couldn’t help, but wonder what would happen when the dam finally burst? 

“Not hungry?” Jack asked when he noticed the untouched tray of food.

“No.” Daniel said quietly.

“I, uh, brought you a little something.” Jack admitted feeling suddenly uncertain. “Nothing big, just something to help pass the time.” He added, setting the plastic bag he’d been carrying on a chair and fishing out the contents. “I know it’s a cliché, but…hold out your hands.”

“Jack.” Daniel sighed, obviously not in the mood to play.

“Just…hold out your hands.” 

Reluctantly Daniel held out a hand and Jack carefully placed a CD player in it.

“I was, uh, going to get you an ipod, but I realized you wouldn’t be able to see the display so it would probably be more annoying than anything.” Jack shrugged as Daniel’s fingers roamed the surface of the small machine. “I snagged a few CD’s from your office. Just to get you started. I can, uh, get you some books on CD if you want. I doubt they do national geographic, but maybe we’ll just have to introduce you to the wide world of fiction.”

Daniel sat with the CD player held to his chest and for the life of him Jack didn’t know what it meant. He assumed it was good. If Daniel hadn’t liked it he probably would have just set it on the bed somewhere. Still, the lack of facial expression to go with the silence left him feeling off balance. There weren’t even tears. Not any more. His tear ducts were gone along with…everything else.

Jack settled on the bed next to him. 

“What?” He asked quietly.

“Thank you.” Daniel whispered, his chin puckering as his lower lip quivered.

“You’re welcome…but that’s not what I asked.” Jack said gently, resting a hand on Daniel’s leg.

“I…I don’t know how to do this, Jack.” He admitted. “Everything is gone. It’s just...it’s all gone.”

“I know.”

“What am I going to do?” he rasped, head shaking slowly from side to side. “I can’t even read a lousy book any more.”

“We’re gonna get through this. One thing at a time.” Jack assured him. “For now we work on getting you out of this hospital and home where you belong. Then we’ll figure out what’s next.”

Jack had to admit, the future was daunting. Especially when the concept was so new to both of them. The ophthalmologist had delivered the news that morning: there was no doubt, Daniel’s vision was gone. His eyes had been destroyed by the blast and there was simply no such thing as replacement eyeballs. Cornea’s sure, but you had to have something to attach them to. The Tok’ra might have been able to lend a hand in that department, but they had officially taken their phone off the hook where Earth was concerned. Not even Jacob was answering. So that left them with only what miracles modern medicine could provide…and in this case there just weren’t any. He could get prosthetics and look perfectly normal, but his translating days were over. Actually, that pretty much meant his career at the SGC was over. One minute he was the head of the Archaeology department the next he wasn’t. Bat an eyelash and it’s gone.

In other words, it was far too early in the game for “let’s look at what you’ve still got left” speeches. Aside from the fact that Daniel was in no mood to hear them, at that point they would have just sounded trite. Well, ok, they sounded trite most of the time, but still, the point was they wouldn’t help.

You can still live a perfectly productive life.

Look at this as a chance to reinvent yourself.

At least you have your health.

Yada, yada.

Jack knew what Daniel needed. He needed time to process what had happened to him and all the repercussions that went with it. He needed to be held, cuddled up next to a very willing Colonel who would do his best to reassure him that he hadn’t really just been condemned to a useless life of shuffling around in his pajamas, slogging through the boredom of a day filled with absolutely nothing, waiting for someone to come home and tell him what the real world had been like that day. A world he was no longer allowed to play in. It wasn’t over. It was just going to be very different. It was reassurance Jack longed to give him, but crawling up beside him on the bed wasn’t an option. Besides, in this case, it would take more than a few minutes of tender affection to get that point across. 

Daniel didn’t always absorb things he was told. Things like: he wasn’t going to be left alone to deal with this. His friends weren’t going to abandon him just because his career at the SGC was over. He wasn’t in this mess alone. Little things like that tended to bounce right off the front of his skull. He needed to feel it before he believed it. Jack knew that repeating the phrases wasn’t going to make any difference. He could recite them like a daily mantra, but Daniel would only believe what he felt. For that reason reassurance was going to be a long time coming; a concept that would have to be built up over time. Until then, they would just have to slog through this mess, one frightening, frustrating hurdle at time. 

The next hurdle in line was surgery the following morning. They were going to do the initial skin grafts to begin healing Daniel’s face. That meant more pain. It was sure to be the first of at least a half dozen surgeries so the concept of getting Daniel out of the hospital and keeping him there was still several months off. For the time being he would be walking around with his head swathed in bandages as the plastic surgeon did what he could to piece him back together. 

Damn it all! As if Jack needed another reason to be pissed at the goa’uld. They had done a lot of rotten, lousy things in the time he’d known them, but this was right up there at the top of the list. Purposely hiding from the MALP so they could ambush whatever band of unwitting Tau’ri came through the gate, and blinding his best friend in the process.

Tucking away his frustration Jack pulled the CD’s out of the bag and rested them on Daniel’s lap. 

“So, what do you want to start with? Beethoven? Beetles? Simon & Garfunkel? Rancid? Wait…really?” Jack asked, inspecting the cover. “Since when are you into this stuff?”

“Since just before…Oma.” Daniel shrugged, arms folded across his chest.

“Huh.” Jack commented. “Ok, so which one?”

“I’m not really in the mood for music right now, Jack.” 

“Alright. We can save that for later. What do you want to do?”

“I’m a little tired.”

“Come on, Daniel. We’re not just going to sit here and stew over this. You’ve got surgery tomorrow which means all you’re going to do for the next couple of days is swallow pain pills and sleep. You can do all your laying around then.”

“Fine. Then you pick something.” 

“Well…uh,” he said glancing around the room, discarding ideas as quickly as they appeared “how about we go for a walk? Nothing wrong with your legs, right?”

Daniel tilted his head to the side, contemplating the idea.

“Good.” Jack answered before he had the chance to think of a reason not to go. “We’ll take a stroll down to the cafeteria and get some Jello.”

“I’m really not hungry, Jack.”

“Who said it was for you? Come on.” Jack prodded, getting up from the bed.

 

~~~~

 

Jack strode through the sliding glass door, wiping sweat from his face and headed for the kitchen. He’d spent the better part of the morning mowing the lawn and trimming hedges. Partly because they needed it and partly because he wanted a place to work off his persistently surly mood; a place where Daniel wouldn’t be around to add to his frustration.

They had been doing a wonderful job of getting on each other’s nerves over the past week; ever since Daniel had come home from the hospital. One surgery down and, according to the plastic surgeon, at least three more to go. Daniel was angry, in pain, and incredibly frustrated a majority of the time. Not being able to indulge in any of his favorite pastimes was making him cranky. Jack couldn’t say that he blamed him, but he had only so much patience and there were days when Daniel’s pissy mood was incredibly contagious. Today was one of those days. So to work off a little steam he had tackled the yard work with a vengeance leaving Daniel to occupy himself in the house.

Carter had figured out shortly after Daniel’s return from the land of the glowing and pretentious, that archaeology and linguistics weren’t just Daniel’s job they were his link to sanity. Without books Doctor Jackson became incredibly sullen and more than a little surly. It had certainly explained his mood on Vis Uban, and a trip to his former office for a pile of mission logs and research books had done wonders for him at the time. However, without the ability to bury himself in the pages and let the emotional dust settle a little they were at a loss for a way to help him regain his balance. 

It was Frasier that had eventually come up with the answer. Daniel didn’t necessarily need something to read or study. He needed something to occupy his mind; a new mystery to puzzle over. To that end she had contacted a woman she knew who was an occupational therapist that specialized in working with the blind…or those that were in the process of going blind. The woman, Lisa, had dropped by the house the day after Daniel’s surgery and left a small binder. The four by six inch book was filled with cardstock pages, each one bearing a small cluster of raised bumps. It seemed that Daniel was about to get his first lesson in Braille, starting with learning the alphabet. Each page represented a letter, one for each letter of the alphabet. 

It was a good idea and heaven knew the ability to read Braille would come in handy in the future, but Daniel’s attitude toward the concept hadn’t exactly been enthusiastic. Braille meant “blind” and he was still coming to grips with the fact that his current physical condition was permanent. This was his life now. Sitting down with the little binder of bumps threw that reality in his face. 

It was a complicated situation. On the one hand he was starved for intellectual stimulation and the thought of working on a new translation…putting bumps to letters…tempted him. However, every moment he spent working on it turned the sputtering flame of his anger a little higher. He was learning, but he was also fuming. That brought up yet another issue.

For the last few years Daniel had used running as a way to work off steam. When something was really pissing him off he would go out for a good long run. Well, running the streets of Jack’s neighborhood was no longer an option. He didn’t know the route well enough to run it literally blind and playing in traffic when he couldn’t see was a recipe for disaster. That part was easily fixed. Get a treadmill and he could run until his feet fell off. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had the option to do even that lately because of the surgery and his limited list of allowed activities while his delicate wounds healed. So Jack currently had a housemate that was bubbling with anger and frustration, with no way to let it out. To say Daniel was touchy was putting it mildly.

Jack had left him in the living room hours ago, fiddling with his alphabet binder, trying to decide whether or not he really wanted to deal with it. Jack didn’t worry about leaving him alone, confident that being in familiar territory meant Daniel could get around by himself without much trouble. Grabbing a cold beer from the refrigerator and slapping a determinedly pleasant expression on his face, Jack set out to check on him. He wandered into the living room to find the couch empty except for the binder. 

“Daniel?” He called before taking a long swallow of beer.

A sudden yelp had Jack abandoning the bottle on the coffee table and jogging toward the back of the house.

“Daniel.”

“In here.” Daniel growled, sucking in air through clenched teeth.

“What happened?” Jack asked, when he found him standing in the guest bathroom holding a hand to his forehead.

“Ran into something.” He groaned. 

Daniel bent toward the floor, slowly curling in on himself the way he always did when something registered a bit too high on his considerable pain tolerance meter. His free hand reached out and fumbled for the counter, gripping it firmly. Jack’s concern over the newest injury distracted him enough that it took several moments to notice that the room was getting brighter. It wasn’t until the light bulbs over the sink were glowing like spot lights that he realized something was happening, even if he didn’t know what. The odd situation, however, resolved itself with a loud pop and the sound of glass hitting the counter as the room went dark.

“What was that?” Daniel asked.

“The, uh, light bulbs just shattered.” Jack replied, having no idea how to explain what he’d just seen. 

“They what?” Daniel groaned.

“I think we might have a short in a circuit somewhere. Are you ok?”

“Not at the moment.” Daniel admitted.

Jack ushered him out of the bathroom and back to the couch, not wanting him groping around a bathroom littered with glass. Daniel was forbidden from using ice on his skin graft, but it seemed that the offending cabinet door had nailed him on the corner of his forehead rather than providing a direct hit to his face, the pain reverberating through already tender nerves, setting his head to shrieking. Jack brought him a small ice pack for his new lump and settled it on his head, briefly stroking his hair. He watched as Daniel stretched out on the couch, though he had to admit, his mind was more on the mysteriously exploding light bulbs than the bruise on Daniel’s head.

 

~~~~

 

Daniel sighed quietly to himself as he held the ice pack to his head. He was getting fed up with himself; with the constant frustration, with the internal discussions of what could and couldn’t be salvaged from his old life. Even the term “old life” was becoming annoying. He needed to get a grip on this. He needed to figure out how to adapt. He’d always prided himself in being able to acclimate to any situation given enough time. Apparently he hadn’t had enough time yet. Nevertheless, his patience was wearing thin.

The reality of his injury and what it meant had crept up on him little by little. He didn’t remember anything about being hit with a staff blast or what had happened in the infirmary afterwards. His first memory was of waking up to total blackness in a room that had sounded like the infirmary, but had felt somehow different. 

And Jack.

Jack had been with him nearly every waking moment, hovering without actually coming off like he was hovering. Jack knew how much it irked him to be coddled and babied. He didn’t need anyone hanging around spoon feeding him soup and fluffing his pillows. What he did need was to know he wasn’t alone. 

Despite having been unable to see for well over a week he couldn’t get used to living in a dark room everywhere he went. It made him feel claustrophobic, not to mention giving him a bad case of cabin fever. He felt cooped up even when he was outside breathing the fresh air. There was only so much a person could adapt to all at once. Of course, the more reasonable side of him kept insisting that it didn’t matter how difficult it was or how much time and effort it would take to settle into it, this was reality now. No amount of whining and sniveling was going to change it. He needed to find a way to make this work or he was going to lose it. 

He realized, lying on the couch and staring into blackness that oddly enough, the smack on the head seemed to have settled something. He felt better, like some of his frustration had somehow been vented. He had no idea how a new lump on the head could make a difference, but if it helped then maybe he needed to spend more time bashing into things.

 

~~~~

 

Jack stood staring out through the window at nothing in particular, his back to the room. Daniel was in surgery yet again, this time to create a nose where there hadn’t been one. It had been just over a month since his initial surgery and things had healed well enough to allow them to build on top of the skin graft foundation. Jack could hardly believe how much time had passed. It seemed like only a few days and a few years all at the same time. 

Hammond had been holding Jack’s place on SG1, with Carter serving as temporary leader while the dust settled on this new situation. He and the General had both known that the chances of him actually coming back to retake command were slim. Still, at the time the concept of stepping down permanently had been too much to contemplate. He had been on overload already so Hammond had given him a few weeks to settle into the idea. As of that morning his allotted leave had run out. It was time to make a choice. To that end he had made arrangements to drop by the base that afternoon and sign his official retirement papers…again. It was a choice Jack was perfectly comfortable with. He was ready. It was time to put his active military career on the shelf and focus on something else. The paperwork, however, was going to be news to Daniel and Jack wasn’t looking forward to the reaction.

Things were getting better. Daniel was slowly learning to live by a new set of rules. He couldn’t smell because, well, his nose was in the same shape as his eyes. He couldn’t taste very well because smell and taste are linked at the hip. Who knew? But that didn’t mean he was isolated. He still had his well used sense of touch, the ability to hear, and a third sense his occupational therapist was trying to get him to develop. Something to do with spatial relations or something. Jack didn’t quite understand that part. She said the human body has the ability to sense when things are within close proximity, reading changes in heat or energy. Jack wasn’t sure he was buying it, but then he didn’t really have to. He remembered how Daniel had taken to the odd practices of the monk on Kheb like a duck to water. Finding possibility in the impossible wasn’t nearly as hard for Daniel as it was for him. So regardless of whether or not Jack could wrap his own head around the concept, if it made Daniel feel a bit more in control of his environment then he wasn’t going to say anything. At this point anything that helped to settle Daniel’s frustration and bolster his confidence was just fine with him. 

For the most part Lisa’s coaching seemed to be working. Daniel was less reluctant to step into his new life and as a result was spending less time shoving his alphabet binder aside and more time leafing through it, fingers inspecting the bumps, trying to make sense of them. It was hard. Daniel was as much a visual person as a tactile person. He learned much more quickly when he could see what he was studying. It was no secret he had a nearly photographic memory, but that wasn’t doing him much good any more. Learning by feel alone was a challenge and his frustration with the situation was slowly being replaced by frustration with himself for not picking it up quickly enough for his liking. It was progress, but still… 

The only bright spot at this point was that Daniel didn’t have the added pressure of trying to keep up with anyone’s expectations, but his own. Not that he was very easy on himself. Most of the time he was brutally harsh, but there wasn’t the added fear that if he didn’t work quickly enough he was going to be cast aside or left behind. That had already happened. Life at the SGC had gone on without him; without them. Jack’s retirement was the last bit of confirmation that that period of both their lives was over.

It was that very concept that had led Jack to be staring out the window at nothing in particular. Daniel was due back from recovery any minute. He would sleep most of that day and the next thanks to the pain killers so Jack had time to figure out how to tell him what had happened while he’d been unconscious; that there was simply no point pretending Jack was going to be reviving his position as head of an active field unit anytime soon. 

Aside from the fact that it would be a while before Daniel would be able to look after himself for any more than an hour or two at a time, he had no intention of even considering going back to work until Daniel was on his feet. He needed support right now. Having Jack go waltzing off to the SGC every day would only reinforce the completely erroneous concept that Daniel was on his own to put his life back together. It was so far form the truth that it was laughable, but for the time being actions spoke much louder than words where Daniel was concerned. Jack was here for him through whatever lay ahead and he was going to prove that by actually physically being there day in and day out. 

When things finally settled and life took on a routine that felt a bit more predictable Jack would find something to do with is time. Maybe that something would be related to the Air Force. Maybe it would be more closely aligned with fishing in a pond that had no fish. He really didn’t know. There was simply no way to guess where things would end up when the dust finally settled. Well, at least not where the distant future was concerned.

The near future was a bit easier to predict. Daniel was going to hate the idea. He’d hate reality slapping him in the face one more time. He’d hate that it made him feel like he was holding Jack back. He’d hate that it had been done without even consulting him. He’d hate that it looked to him like Jack was wasting his life; trading in his career in favor of sitting around waiting on a blind man. Of course, none of that was true. Jack wasn’t being forced to do anything except realign his priorities to fit the new reality.

Daniel was the single most important person in his life and had been for a lot longer than Jack cared to admit. In the past, working together had been a perfect fit. Sure they got on each other’s nerves, but then they’d always been good at that. The moment Daniel had been hit with that staff blast reality had been irreversibly shifted and Jack’s priorities had instantly shifted right along with it. The battle for the universe seemed suddenly much less important than taking care of the man he loved when he needed it most. It was that simple, but Daniel would hate it anyway. 

The sound of the gurney being pushed through the door to Daniel’s room attracted his attention and Jack watched as the orderlies transferred him to his bed with practiced motion. A nurse came in and checked his IV and heart monitor, the latter attached more as a precaution than out of necessity. She gave Jack a smile and then left. 

Daniel’s face was a mound of gauze as usual, but this time the gauze had contours it had been missing before; a brand new nose crafted out of skin harvested from Daniel’s back. It wouldn’t be fully functional because he still wouldn’t be able to smell, but it would make him look a lot closer to normal, something that would come in very handy when it was time to face the world again.

 

~~~~

 

It was a rare occurrence when Jack made Daniel angry enough that he honestly didn’t have the words to express it. This was one of those times. 

“You didn’t even bother to tell me.” Daniel said, repeating the phrase he’d already used.

“I know, but you had other things to deal with.”

“You retiring from the Air Force doesn’t even rate a conversation?” Daniel gaped.

“It’s not like it’s the first time.”

“I’m serious, Jack.”

“So am I. It’s my career, Daniel. Ultimately it was my choice.”

“And the fact that I think you made a mistake doesn’t matter?”

“Wanting to spend time …being with you is a mistake?” Jack replied. 

Daniel knew what he had meant to say even if he had stopped himself from actually saying it. Jack would rather spend his time taking care of him than be half way across the universe worrying that something had gone wrong while he was gone. Well he didn’t need taking care of and if he did his disability pay would more than cover a part time nurse or a full time housekeeper. Jack didn’t need to flush his career down the toilet to take care of him. Did he have any idea how that made him feel?

“It doesn’t have to be permanent, Daniel.” Jack sighed. “It’s not like they haven’t dragged me back to active duty before. I just think that for now it’s the right move.”

“And if I hadn’t been hurt would you still think it was the ‘right move’?”

Daniel heard him sigh heavily and a quiet ruffling noise that most likely meant he was scrubbing at his hair in frustration. 

“Daniel…” another sigh “If the shoe had been on the other foot and it was me lying there in bandages don’t tell me you’d go on your merry way as an active member of SG1 and pretend nothing had happened. I know you better than that.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Yes, it is and you know it. You just don’t want to see it.”

“You should have told me, Jack!”

He heard Jack groan and the sound of stomping feet cross the room. For a moment he thought Jack had left until he heard a dull thump that was most likely Jack’s head against the far wall. He could imagine him clenching and unclenching his fists in aggravation as he struggled to find a way to say something to put and end to the argument.

Jack didn’t understand…and it was probably because Daniel wasn’t saying everything he should have been saying. Jack had walked away from his career not because he was done with it. Not because the decision made him happy. Not because he was ready to give up a life of chasing down intergalactic bad guys and take up fishing full time. He’d walked away from his career because it was a choice of keeping it or taking care of him. Deep inside Daniel knew he should have been grateful that Jack had chosen him over the Air Force; that he hadn’t simply gone back to work leaving the nurses to take care of him, and a rehabilitation center to get him back on his feet. But that wasn’t what he felt right then. Jack was giving up his career for no other reason than because he had been hurt in the line of duty and his life was a mess. Daniel’s situation was forcing the choice and he couldn’t help but think that at some point in the future when the chaos had settled, Jack was going to regret it. He didn’t want to be the target of the resentment that realization would inspire. It would be better for Jack to just leave now and let him heal a broken heart while he was busy healing everything else. One day he’d get over it…maybe…, but his life was already a train wreck. There was no need to make it a two for one deal.

“What do you want, Daniel?” Jack asked from across the room. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to get on with your life.”

“Without you.” Jack accused.

“If it comes to that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you throwing away your life because of mine.”

“You see, this is why I didn’t tell you. I knew you’d see it that way.”

“It is that way, Jack.”

“Not to me.”

“You don’t understand!” Daniel insisted.

Daniel had always talked with his hands. The more agitated he became the more he gesticulated, jabbing at the air to make his point, and it was moments like this when not being able to see left him at a severe disadvantage. He’d meant to point an accusing finger at Jack who was standing somewhere on the other side of the room. What he’d done instead was jam his hand into the nightstand next to his bed hard enough to elicit a loud crack from half his knuckles. The pain was immediate and served only to fuel his anger. His head was pounding, his face screaming, his hand screaming and under it all a faint hissing sound. 

 

~~~~

 

Jack had his back to Daniel, pressing fists into the far wall. He really didn’t want to be having this conversation here. Not in a military hospital where the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule still reigned supreme. He supposed it didn’t really matter now that he was retiring…or rather, retired…, but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more crap than he already had.

Jack heard the crack of something solid landing squarely against something more solid and turned to see Daniel cradling his hand against his chest. Great. Just great. Now they could add a broken hand to everything else. He was considering whether or not to make a comment to that affect when he smelled the unmistakable scent of burning wiring. It was followed a brief second later by a flash of sparks from the heart monitor by Daniel’s bed and a small cloud billowing toward the ceiling.

“Daniel!” Jack bellowed bolting across the room and hitting the call button on the way.

“What’s going on?” Daniel asked, confusion undermining some of his anger.

“It’s ok. You’ve just got a monitor on fire over here.” Jack replied.

“A what?!”

“Get somebody in here.” Jack ordered when one of the nurses answered over the room’s intercom as he snatched the monitor’s power cord from the wall socket.

“What happened?” the woman gaped a moment later, coming into the room and seeing the obviously burned out monitor.

“His monitor just had a melt down.”

“Get the electrodes off him.” Another nurse ordered a moment before someone whipped up Daniel’s shirt and snatched the adhesive patches from his chest.

“Ow! What happened?” He asked.

“I’m sorry, Daniel, it must have been a faulty monitor. Are you ok?” the nurse informed him.

“Yeah, I, uh, I think so.”

“Never had one of these do that before.”

Jack stood scowling from the blackened heart monitor to Daniel and back again. They might not have seen anything like it before, but he had; recently, in fact. 

He’d had an electrician come over and look at the house, searching for a reason for the sudden explosion of the light bulbs in the bathroom last month. The man had been at a loss. Everything was as it should be and he had never seen a power surge that could explode bulbs without leaving a bit of melted wiring behind. There hadn’t been any of that either. That left only one explanation. It made no sense at all, not even now when he had seen a recreation of the event with is own eyes. Somehow Daniel was responsible. It was completely impossible, but at the same time it was real. Apparently when Daniel was pissed enough about something and in enough pain on top of that, he had the ability to create his own personal power surge and heaven help any piece of electrical equipment that might be within reach. 

Jack knew what Oma was capable of when it came to throwing balls of fire around. He knew Daniel would have been capable of the same thing when he was ascended. Could it be that when he’d been tossed out on his ear some of his ascended abilities had followed him? Of course, if that were the case why were they just showing up now? Why not months ago when he’d first reappeared in all his naked glory?

Logical explanation or not, obviously it was in the best interest of any and all electrical equipment in the room to keep Daniel calm, or at least at something other than a full emotional boil. Jack watched as the nursing staff filed out of the room, taking the flamed out monitor with them. He followed them across the room and closed the door before returning to settle on the bed next to Daniel.

“I know you’re angry.” Jack said quietly, a hand rested on Daniel’s leg. “I know you think I should have let you participate in a decision this big before I just ran off and did it without you.”

Daniel sat listening, his jaw set.

“But I need you to understand where I’m coming from. I’ve already lost you once. In fact, I almost did it again in Honduras.” Jack sighed. “We’ve had near misses in the past. A lot of them, but after getting a full Technicolor demonstration of what my life is like without you…I don’t ever want to go through that again. There’s no guarantee that I’m going to have you around nearly as long as I’d like. In fact, with you it seems guaranteed that I won’t. I don’t want to waste this, Daniel. 

“I know you think this is coming out of nowhere, but trust me it’s not. This has been a long time coming. Me retiring so we could spend time together is not a new concept, but it never made any sense before. It would have meant both of us being willing to make the choice to leave the SGC at the same time and that just didn’t happen. Well, now it makes sense. You’re done…and so am I.”

Jack reached up and gently stroked Daniel’s jaw, Daniel flinched slightly at the unexpected contact.

“You can argue all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that I want to have a life with you, Daniel. This isn’t the way I wanted it, but now that the opportunity is here I damn well intend to take advantage of it.” Jack swallowed tears he had no intention of letting fall. “Granted, maybe it was a bad idea to handle it this way, but I did it without telling you so I could convince you I’m serious. Nothing is going to change my mind. Definitely not you telling me that I need to ‘get on with my life’. 

“I know right now you think you are, but you’re not holding me back, Daniel. This has nothing to do with pity. I’m choosing this because I love you and I want to spend time with you while I still have that option. Blind, missing limbs, confined to a wheelchair, I don’t care. I’ll take you any way I can get you.

“The fact that I’m even making this speech should tell you how serious I am because you know I hate this stuff.” He added.

“And when I don’t need you to take care of me any more?” Daniel croaked, his voice thick with emotion he was no longer physically able to display with tears. “What happens then?”

“Then I take up fishing, open a shooting range, work as a military consultant to a television show, who knows.” Jack shrugged. “Something that means I get to come home to you at night and have much less risk of being on the receiving end of an egomaniacal goa’uld’s pissy attitude.”

Daniel offered a half-hearted smile.

“I need to make one thing perfectly clear, Doctor Jackson.” Jack continued. “I’m not leaving the Air Force for a full time job taking care of you. This is just a temporary assignment. One I fully expect to be able to give up before long.”

Daniel nodded, arms folded across his chest, clearly broadcasting the fact that he had yet to make peace with the idea.

“How’s the hand?” Jack asked, changing the subject.

“Ok.”

“Can you move your fingers?”

Daniel gave them a cursory wiggle.

“You’re going to have a nasty bruise, but it’s probably not broken.” Jack pronounced. “Want me to have them x-ray it? I’m sure they’d be more than willing to check you out in light of the melted heart monitor.”

“No.”

“Want some ice at least?”

“Is asking for ice going to mean they want to check out my hand?”

“Probably.”

“Then let’s skip it.”

“Ok. They’re your knuckles.” Jack shrugged.

 

~~~~

 

“Now keep in mind, things are still a bit swollen so this isn’t exactly the finished product.” The plastic surgeon warned as he unwound the bandages from Daniel’s face.

Jack was standing at the end of the examination table, within reach of Daniel, but not actually touching him. This was a big day for both of them. First of all, it marked the end of Daniel’s reconstructive surgeries. This was as good as it was going to get. Second, it was the first time he had allowed Jack to stay in the room during the great unveiling. 

Daniel had never been comfortable letting Jack see his injuries. When they were in the hospital he made Jack leave the room for every bandage change. Of course, he didn’t have that option at home since Jack was the one changing the bandages, but it was obvious that he was distinctly uncomfortable with letting Jack see the damage. Obviously Daniel had never seen how bad things looked first hand, not when they were at their worst and not any time during the process of piecing him back together. But he seemed to have no trouble imagining it and was trying to spare Jack the trauma of actually seeing it. Jack had to admit, seeing Daniel in the beginning had been hard. With the bandages he was able to imagine the face he knew so well hidden under the gauze. Without them, well it was a heavy dose of reality, to say the least. Still, Daniel had never been just a body to him. The goa’uld might have been able to mar the way he looked, but they hadn’t touched what was on the inside and that was all that mattered. Nevertheless, Jack had always respected his wishes. If Daniel wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Jack seeing him during the renovations then he was willing to wait in the hall, or change gauze pads at record speed to get it over with as quickly as possible, or whatever. 

Today, however, Daniel apparently saw no need to shelter him. After all, this was the final result of five reconstructive surgeries. No more bandages to hide behind. What Jack saw here was going to be what they were left with and he had to admit, he was anxious. He had high hopes after seeing the doctor’s work with Daniel’s nose. It had been perfect. It looked just like his old nose. He was hoping for the same result with the newly remodeled eyes. The surgeon had had to reconstruct eyelids and rebuild part of the surrounding bone structure on the left side where Daniel had been hit the worst. They had also replaced his eyes with prosthetics to make the illusion complete. Theoretically he would look perfectly normal with the exception of a tiny bit of scaring on one side of his face. 

Jack tried not to hold his breath as the final layer of gauze was removed and the pads were pulled away from Daniel’s eyes. He couldn’t help, but smile at the familiar scowl of uncertainty that creased Daniel’s newly rebuilt face. He wanted to hold his hand, stroke his face, something to let him know there was no need to worry, but he was trying to hold to the illusion that they were nothing more than comrades in arms when the medical staff was around. He was pretty sure they had figured out the truth already, but old habits died hard.

“Well?” Daniel asked quietly.

“Well, it looks like you got into a bar fight.” Jack replied.

“How bad?”

“Relax, Dr. Jackson,” the surgeon chimed in, “there’s a bit of swelling to your eyes, but that’s all.”

“You look like you’ve got a couple of really nasty shiners, Daniel.” Jack confirmed. “Other than that…you look like…you.” he grinned.

“Really?”

“Really. Blue eyes, lashes, and everything.” He commented, nearly in awe. 

It was Daniel. Six months and five surgeries since the attack and he was actually standing there staring at a face he had been sure he’d never see again. It was red and bruised from the surgery and swelling, but it was Daniel. Jack had never been so happy in his life. Standing there smiling like an idiot he hardly knew what to say, so he said the only thing that came to mind.

“Welcome back, Dr. Jackson.”

As far as Jack was concerned it marked the end of a very long and quite disturbing chapter in their lives, but things were finally headed toward something loosely resembling a normal existence. It would take a few more weeks before he began to understand just how wrong he was.

 

~~~~

 

It had never been said that Daniel wasn’t one for thinking outside the proverbial box. In fact, he did almost all of his thinking outside said box. For that reason, it wasn’t the fact that Daniel had come up with a unique solution to his problems that had Jack staring in disbelief, a feeling that was somewhere between freaked out and foreboding rippling in his stomach. It was the fact that Jack knew where the solutions had come from and that they were most likely just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

He had been sitting quite comfortably in an easy chair in the den, perusing the sports section, Daniel on the couch running fingers over random pages in the alphabet book he had very nearly memorized. Without warning, not that there was really such a thing as an appropriate warning, a box of crackers had come sailing out of the kitchen and into Daniel’s outstretched hand.

Jack sat staring, completely dumbfounded by what he had just seen.

“Daniel?”

“Jack.” Daniel replied, opening the box and looking incredibly pleased with himself.

“I’m going to assume you just did that thing with the crackers.”

“Yeah.” Daniel replied casually. “You want some?”

“No. What I want is for you to tell me how you just did that thing with the crackers.”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, crunching contentedly. “I just thought it.”

“Ok, is it out of line for me to be fundamentally disturbed by that?”

“No.” Daniel said after a moment’s consideration. “I suppose not.”

“Oh good. What the hell is going on?!”

“Well…it turns out I’m telekinetic.” Daniel shrugged.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Maybe a little.” Daniel smiled, sightless eyes finding him with amazing accuracy.

“And exactly when did you suddenly become telekinetic?”

“I’m not sure, but I think I’ve had it since I came back from being ascended.”

“And it’s just showing up now because…?” 

“I never had any reason to use it until now.” Daniel replied calmly.

“And you think actually using it is a good idea?”

“Well it’s either that or I have to get up and feel my way through the house to the kitchen, fumble across the counter looking for the right cabinet, try to guess which shelf the box is on, not to mention trying to guess which box is the right one…”

“Ok, I get the point.” Jack interrupted. “You could also just ask me for help.”

“I could, but why interrupt your reading when I can just have…”

“…the box come to you. Yeah, I get it.” 

“It’s not a big deal, Jack. It’s just another way of adapting.”

“Oh, I beg to differ, Daniel. It’s a very big deal.”

“Why?”

“Why?! Because the NID will come slithering out of the woodwork in a heartbeat if anyone ever finds out about this.” Jack gaped. “You know they’ve been dying to get their hands on you since you came back from playing in Oma’s sandbox. And while we’re on the subject of Oma, should you really be messing around with…whatever she left behind?”

“How is the NID going to find out? I’m not at the SGC any more.”

“Trust me, Daniel, the minute they read about a man with telekenetic powers in the tabloids they’ll come breaking down the door.”

“Jack, I’ve been doing this for weeks and you’ve never even seen it until now. How is anybody else going to see it?”

“Weeks? Like how many weeks?”

“I don’t know. Three, four…seven.”

“Two months?!”

“Give or take.”

“And you never thought you should mention it before now?”

“Was waiting for the right time.” Daniel smirked.

Jack scrubbed at his hair and wiped a hand across his face. In all honesty, he was having a hard time figuring out just how upset he should be. He wanted to be angry. Scratch that. He wanted to be blood boiling livid, but he wasn’t sure if that would be blowing things out of proportion. Ok so Daniel could make things float across the room just by thinking it. It wasn’t like he was making things appear out of thin air. At least not yet. Crap. Why wasn’t there a set of regulations for dealing with this kind of thing?! A handbook somewhere? He’d even settle for Dear Abbey if someone would just give him some idea of the proper response to a post-ascended being telling you they’ve managed to keep hold of at least half of their…talents…despite returning to the human plane of existence. If this kind of crap was going to keep happening then somebody needed to update the military field manual because he was in way over his head with absolutely no idea which direction to swim. 

“Relax, Jack.” Daniel added gently, having accurately translated the extended silence to mean that Jack’s head was spinning. “I seriously doubt people with binoculars are staked out across the street watching us. As far as the NID is concerned I’m damaged goods. Whatever fascination they might have had with my return from the dead was wiped out by that last staff blast.”

“You’re not ‘damaged goods’, Daniel.” Jack replied quietly, disturbed by the thought that Daniel might actually believe such a thing.

“Not to you or Sam or Teal’c, but as far as the NID is concerned there’s no reason to pay any attention to a blind former member of SG-1. I can’t help them find the lost city if I can’t translate Ancient so I’m pretty sure I’m off their ‘most wanted’ list since that seems to be the top priority. If not the only priority.”

“Well this latest development would certainly change their mind, wouldn’t it?”

“All the more reason to learn how to use what Oma left me.”

“And the thought that she might have ulterior motives doesn’t bother you?”

“What ulterior motives?”

“Who knows, but when was the last time you met an alien that didn’t have some sort of agenda hidden up its sleeve?”

“She doesn’t have sleeves, Jack.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes.” Daniel admitted, “But to be honest, if she’s got an agenda that makes this whole mess make sense then I think I’d like to hear it.”

He had a point there. 

Jack didn’t like dealing with things he couldn’t readily explain and this he couldn’t explain. He thought about pointing out to Daniel that blind wasn’t permanent as far as some of their alien allies were concerned. Things could take a very definite turn toward the bizarre if any of them saw fit to correct that annoying little condition, but that just opened up a totally different argument, one he didn’t really want to get into. 

The fact that the Tok’ra couldn’t be bothered to help when they needed it most still struck a raw nerve with Jack. They owed the SGC a heck of a lot more than something as easy as restoring Daniel’s sight. Nevertheless, they were off pouting in some corner of the universe and saw no reason to cut the crap and make good on the considerable debt they had racked up over the years. Was it any wonder he had trouble seeing them as anything other than just another gaggle of goa’uld?

“Any other things you’ve been waiting for the ‘right time’ to tell me?” Jack asked evenly, pushing the argument aside.

“Uh, no, I think that’s it.” Daniel replied, crunching happily on his crackers. “Sure you don’t want some?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Jack sighed, the sports section crumpled in his lap as he sat staring at Daniel, watching him sitting there as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Jack wasn’t buying the act. Daniel might appear to be taking it in stride and for the most part he probably was, but he knew Daniel well enough to know that there was much more going on under the surface than he was admitting. He might not see the NID as much of a threat any more, but they weren’t the only bunch of knuckle dragging goons out there. The universe was much bigger than just the Trust and its minions and heaven knew this wouldn’t be the first time one of said goons would have used someone from earth as an unwitting pawn in a sick and twisted quest for power. There could easily be a lot more to this situation that meets the eye…no pun intended.

If Daniel wanted to keep his real thoughts about the ability to float boxes of crackers around to himself then it was his prerogative. One thing Jack couldn’t be sure of at the moment was whether or not Daniel had figured out that it wasn’t the only parlor trick he had in his arsenal. He could also melt electronic equipment into a useless lump and explode light bulbs if properly motivated. Either way, Daniel’s causal response to the whole thing wasn’t doing anything to settle the dread floating around in Jack’s stomach. He had a nagging feeling this wasn’t the last surprise they would uncover before this was over. 

Sometimes he really hated being right.

 

~~~~

 

Jack was outside working in the sun, trimming hedges when the sound of Daniel’s voice came floating out through the open sliding glass door.

“Over here.” Jack replied, glancing back at the house to find a sweaty Daniel standing in the doorway having finished his morning run on the treadmill.

“Did, uh, Sam say something about dropping by today?”

“No, not to me. Why?”

“No reason. I just thought…It’s nothing. Never mind.” Daniel shook his head. “I’m going to climb in the shower.”

“Ok.”

Jack might have been willing to blow off the entire conversation except for the fact that Daniel had an odd look on his face. One might even call it mildly disturbed. 

“You alright?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Came the standard reply.

With that Daniel disappeared back inside. Jack stood for a long moment, hedge clippers in hand, staring at the closed sliding door. Something was up. He didn’t know what yet, but he could feel it in his gut. With a heavy sigh he turned back to his work. Whatever it was, it would rear its ugly head soon enough.

As it turned out, the head in question wasn’t ugly at all. It was, in fact, attached to a very pleasant looking and incredibly familiar face; one that came floating into the backyard about 20 minutes later.

“I tried the door, but…I guess you didn’t hear me.” Sam said, striding across the lawn.

Jack’s stomach lurched.

“Hey, Carter.” He replied, trying to sound blissfully pleasant. “What brings you by?”

“Nothing. Just have some down time so I thought I’d drop in. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No. It’s fine.” Jack swallowed. “I’m sure Daniel would love having someone to talk to besides me.”

He ushered her inside, grabbing a kitchen towel to wipe the sweat from his face, hoping to wipe the uneasy feeling away with it and failing. He offered her a beer and they chatted amicably in the den before Daniel emerged freshly showered and shaved. Jack didn’t miss the look on his face when he rounded the corner, trailing his hand along the wall to keep his bearings. To his credit, he covered it well when Sam greeted him, though the only reason he didn’t look white as a sheet was due to the lingering affects of the shower and the run. 

Melting things, moving things, and now predicting things. On the bright side, the bizarre list of new abilities Daniel was sprouting meant it took Jack much less time to conjure up explanations with each passing oddity. He supposed that was a bonus…of sorts.

Excusing himself to clean up from the latest round of yard work he stalked down the hall to the bedroom with the beginnings of real concern blossoming in his stomach. Where was this going to stop and while he was asking questions, what the hell did it mean? Was Daniel slowly mutating into something other than fully human? Was this the beginning stage of a second trip to the land of the ascended? The fact that this particular addition was obviously freaking Daniel out just as much as it was him was at least minimally comforting. They could be fundamentally disturbed together. Unfortunately, any discussion about it was going to have to wait until after Carter left. Not that Jack really minded putting it off all that much. He needed a little time to get his head around it first.

 

~~~~

 

Daniel sat on the couch in the den. What he wanted to do was get up and pace, but pacing was no longer as easy as it had once been.

“I don’t know, Jack.” He admitted. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing.”

“I…I don’t even know what to say to that.” Jack gaped.

“I know it’s…unusual…but I still think this is stuff I have been able to do all along.”

“Fine. The moving things…thing…I can understand that given the situation. But where exactly does predicting the future come in to play? Not to mention melting things when you’re supremely pissed.”

“I don’t know.” Daniel admitted, wrapping his arms around himself. “Wait. What?”

“Remember the heart monitor in the hospital?”

“The one that malfunctioned?” He asked.

“Yeah, well it had a little help.”

“What…you mean me?” 

“Well it wasn’t me.”

Daniel hardly knew what to say to the accusation. On one hand it sounded completely laughable that he had the ability to set a monitor on fire with a thought. Still, this was Jack. Jack didn’t jump to insane conclusions. He jumped to perfectly logical, totally rational if not reluctant conclusions.

“Maybe it really was a malfunction.” Daniel offered.

“Like the light bulbs in the bathroom?” Jack countered. “No, it was you.”

Daniel could tell by his tone that Jack was reluctant to voice the thought he’d obviously been carrying around in his head for months.

“Maybe unlocking one ability unlocks them all.” Daniel shrugged.

“I think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘can of worms’.” Jack replied. “Or possibly ‘Pandora’s box’.”

Daniel didn’t need to see it to know Jack had what was most likely a miserable expression on his face. He knew this tone of voice. It was his “I’m honestly worried and I don’t like to be worried” tone. The fact that he was pacing said as much as anything about his level of frustration, the position of his voice changing as he wandered aimlessly around the room. 

Daniel had to admit he’d been taken completely by surprise with the newest of his odd abilities. This one definitely made him a touch uncomfortable. He’d experienced a lot of odd things during his brief human encounters with Oma, but seeing into the future was on a totally different plane from being able to move things with his mind. It was fascinating and frightening all at the same time. For the time being it didn’t seem to serve much purpose, though Sam’s visit hadn’t exactly been the first time something like that had happened. It was just the first time Jack had caught on to it. Jack’s suggestion last week that they get a seeing-eye dog had actually been the first. Daniel had known about the idea as well as the trainer’s name before Jack had even broached the subject. Only by about ten minutes, but still, he had known. 

His occupational therapist, Lisa, had been telling him for months that there was more to life than just what he could see with his eyes. So lately he’d been trying to focus on the things he couldn’t see rather than the fact that he couldn’t see at all. There was a whole world of sound he’d never noticed before, his attention in the past having been swallowed up by what he saw. There were also dozens upon dozens of different textures that passed under his fingers every day and he had never noticed them either. However, it wasn’t until she had mentioned the concept of instincts and mental abilities taking over for physical abilities that things had started to change.

The day he had begun taking those concepts seriously was the same day he had realized that if he visualized something clearly enough that “something” would somehow end up in his hands. At first it had scared the life out of him when a pen had bumped into his hand while he’d been sitting in the middle of what he was sure had been an empty room. For a moment he had thought that he’d somehow made the thing materialize out of thin air. Then he’d groped his way across the table looking for the pen he had been mindlessly fiddling with moments earlier only to find that it was no longer where he’d left it. He had no idea how the ability worked, only that it did. He’d been secretly practicing since then, honing it until he could set things gently in the palm of his hand. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Jack to know. He just remembered how disturbing the whole experience in the monastery on Kheb had been for him and had correctly assumed it would be the same reaction now. Jack didn’t like dealing with things that didn’t have a reasonable explanation. And this definitely qualified. 

Of course, in this case there was a major difference. This time there wasn’t an Ancient pulling strings behind the scenes. As far as he knew he was doing it himself and the thought left him with the same feeling of awe and wonder he had felt while sitting in the black sand with the monk years ago. Life was no longer bound by the physical rules he’d always known. The possibilities were endless. A bit intimidating, but endless.

Still, fascinating or not, Daniel had no idea why any of it was happening; why Oma had sent him back to human form with such incredible abilities still in tact. It seemed to contradict all the rules of non-interference. True, it was a human interfering in human activities, but then he apparently wasn’t a typical human. Not any more. Probably another one of those fine lines she liked to walk.

“This is just like Kheb, Daniel.” Jack sighed. “There’s more going on here than meets the eye.”

“Maybe there is.” he argued. “But even on Kheb the abilities weren’t dangerous. They were supposed to teach me something. Maybe this is teaching me something.”

“Like?”

“I don’t know. To trust myself. That there’s more to life than what I can see.”

“Look, I know you want to believe that this is a good thing.” Jack sighed. “And so far it doesn’t seem to be hurting anything, but you and I both know the Ancients are almost as sneaky as the goa’uld when it comes to following their own agenda. What if this is just some kind of introduction to a big, bad thing you don’t really want to be a part of?”

“The Ancients aren’t the goa’uld, Jack.”

“Maybe not, but they both have a nasty habit of using people for their own purposes and then backing out the minute things start to go South.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Abydos.” Jack replied. “I’m talking about Abydos, Daniel. They let it be blown to bits and never lifted a finger.”

“This isn’t the same.” Daniel said quietly. “There aren’t any lives at stake here, Jack. Not even ours.”

“Maybe not, but I don’t trust them.”

“How do you know it’s even them?”

“Because you could never do any of this stuff before. They’re the common denominator here.”

Daniel had to admit, the Ancients were notorious for being reluctant to help where help was needed, no matter how desperate the situation. They had a very highly developed sense of self-preservation or something. Still, they had never been openly hostile to him. At least not that he remembered. 

“Maybe they are.” Daniel replied. “But I don’t know how to stop this from happening. Do you?”

The silence Daniel got in return answered his question.

“Then I don’t think we have much choice in the matter.”

 

~~~~

 

There were definite downsides to Daniel being unable to see. It rubbed against the grain of his fiercely independent nature to not be able to set out on his own to do something. It left him a bit off balance that he couldn’t pass the time by simply sticking his nose in a book. It annoyed him at times to have to settle for inspecting something with his hands rather than his eyes. The Discovery and National Geographic channels were much less interesting when you only had the commentators’ description to go by. And it added a whole new dimension to his nightmares.

It hadn’t taken very long at all for Jack to come face to face with that last concept. Less than a week, if he remembered correctly. It had played itself out much the same way it was doing that night, Daniel sleeping fitfully, restlessness turning to moans, moans turning to a startled yelp as Daniel wrenched himself awake, the cry turning to outright panic as he realized there was no light, no visual queues to tell him that he really was awake, the nightmare was over. The visions clung to the darkness in which he now lived, floating in front of him, apparently reluctant to let him go, turning every dream into a persistent night terror.

“Jack!”

“I’m right here.” He replied sleepily, his heart pounding in his chest from having been shrieked out of a dead sleep.

“Jack!”

“It’s ok. It’s over, Daniel. You’re safe. No bad guys.” Jack soothed, Daniel’s hands scrabbling over him, looking for something solid to hold onto.

Typically that would mean Jack could settle back against the headboard with Daniel plastered against him and hold him until he stopped shaking, letting Daniel find his way back to reality. However, the future seeing stuff was apparently adding a nasty twist to the already unpleasant scenario. 

“They’re in trouble.” Daniel rasped.

“Who?”

“Sam and Teal’c. I saw it.” He insisted.

“Take it easy, Daniel. It was just a dream.”

“I saw it, Jack.”

“I believe you, but let’s think this through.” He soothed patiently, a hand gently rubbing at Daniel’s back. “Who were they fighting with?”

“I…I don’t know. I couldn’t see.”

“When did it happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“SG1 is on stand down for the rest of the week.” Jack reminded him. “That means this would have to be at least a week in the future. I’m not sure your, uh, future stuff reaches that far.”

Daniel fell quiet.

“Is it worth calling them in the middle of the night to check it out?”

“No.” Daniel admitted.

“Probably just a dream?” He coaxed.

Daniel was quiet for a long time, the tension in his body testament to the fact that he was still wide awake.

“How am I supposed to know when it’s real?” He finally asked quietly.

“I have no idea.” Jack sighed. “The other stuff happened when you were awake. Maybe you have to be awake for it to work?”

“Maybe.” Daniel conceded.

“We can hope.” Jack added, smothering a yawn.

 

~~~~

 

The notion that Daniel’s premonitions were limited to only a few minutes worth of warning was officially put to rest several weeks later. He was listening to a book through the eReader Jack had bought him as a final-surgery-celebration present, pacing a small circle in one corner of the den. Out of nowhere he suddenly knew with startling clarity that Senator Kinsey was about to find himself in an enviable position of power...one in the White House. The cold chill that ran through him stopped him in mid step. 

Ok this was bad. 

This was very, very bad. 

The implications spread out through is mind like a spider web. A member of the Trust in the White House? What would it mean for the Stargate program? What would it mean for the citizens of the United States? What would it mean for the citizens of Earth if the NID suddenly had control of the SGC and the actions of its personnel? They’d seen first hand how that group ran things and it hadn’t been pretty. 

No, this was definitely bad.

Suddenly Daniel needed to sit down. He had to tell someone; to stop it from happening, but who could he tell? He might have had a few tenuous connections to people of power and influence, but none that ran to the Republican Party leadership. Not even close. 

It took Daniel several very long moments of horror at the thought before it occurred to him that he’d just blown past his typical 20 minute window for premonitions. Elections were five months away. 

 

~~~~

 

Jack walked through the front door with the newest member of the family following obediently at his side, and a grin on his face. The year-old, pure bred, German Shepherd named Lady sniffed eagerly at her new surroundings, waiting for permission to explore at will. He followed the sound of Daniel’s eReader as it prattled on about ancient Roman history, Lady walking patiently at his side, head darting from side to side as she tried to look at everything at once. He couldn’t help the anticipation bubbling inside as he imagined Daniel’s reaction to his new found freedom. Now he could walk outside on his own; maybe even run a couple of miles if Lady was up to it. It was going to effectively unchain him from the house and give him the chance to reclaim a bit more of his independence. In short, he would love it.

Crossing the few steps to the den Jack saw Daniel’s head swivel toward them at the sound of approaching feet and the grin immediately slid from his face. Daniel was sitting in one of the easy chairs, the eReader still rambling on in his hands, and the color having completely drained from his face. 

“Daniel?”

“Jack.” He replied, swallowing.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, uh…it’s nothing.”

“Right. Care to try that again?”

“I, uh, I just…”

“What?” Jack asked quietly, crouching down beside him and gently resting a hand on his knee. “Sit.” He added quietly, to which Lady obediently settled her haunches on the floor.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“What?”

“You just told me to sit.”

“No, not you. I was talking to Lady.”

“Who?”

“Your new guide dog.”

“Really?” Daniel asked, brightening.

“Really. Don’t change the subject.” He prodded gently.

It hadn’t taken more than a glance to realize Daniel was completely unnerved by something. That didn’t happen very often. The fact that this was the second time Jack had seen that look on his face in the last month was not exactly comforting.

“I’d, uh, prefer it if we did.” Daniel replied. “I’m not really ready to talk about it yet.”

Jack studied him for a long moment before finally agreeing. Instead they gave Lady a guided tour of the house and Daniel practiced putting on her harness and giving her basic commands out in the backyard, letting her walk him around the lawn. The story of what had turned Daniel white as a sheet didn’t come out until that night after dinner.

“In the White House?!” Jack gaped.

Daniel nodded.

“He doesn’t end up President does he? Tell me he doesn’t.”

“I don’t know.” Daniel shrugged, an expression on his face that Jack couldn’t quite read.

“What?”

“It’s just…you really believe me?”

“Of course, I believe you.” Jack replied.

“Why?”

“To be honest, I don’t know.” Jack admitted. “I just do.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just thought it would be a harder sell than that.”

“You believe it…and I believe you. Not very profound, but it works.” Jack shrugged.

“Let’s hope that same theory works for General Hammond.” Daniel sighed as he felt his way to a chair and sat down.

“We’re going to tell Hammond?”

“There’s more.”

“How did I know you were going to say that.”

“Anubis is going to attack Earth, Jack.”

“What?”

“Not too long after Kinsey ends up in office.” Daniel nodded. “We can’t stop Kinsey, but we have to stop Anubis. You have to stop Anubis.”

“Me.”

“Yes.”

“What happened to retiring and living happily ever after?”

“Apparently that’s not in the cards.”

“Should I pretend to be shocked by that?”

Daniel flashed a troubled smile.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning.” Jack suggested, settling into a chair.

 

~~~~

 

“How bad is this going to get, Jack?” Hammond asked from where he sat behind the desk in his office.

“Bad enough that I think I need to come out of retirement.” 

Hammond’s eyebrows crept up his forehead.

The conversation had been months in the making. For the first few weeks after the startling revelation about Kinsey, Anubis and Earth’s fate Jack and Daniel had gone back and forth about what they could tell Hammond that would sound credible enough to mobilize the resources of the SGC. They had finally come to the conclusion that the only proof they had was the election results that put Kinsey in office. If it happened it was proof enough. If it didn’t…well, then it probably wasn’t worth bringing up. Jack had placed a very cryptic phone call to Hammond telling him that the day he saw Kinsey being sworn into office was the day they needed to have a very serious discussion about the likelihood of future events that would put all of them in grave danger. It had sounded like something out of a bad spy novel, but Jack had had little choice. He needed to tip their hand early enough to convince Hammond the whole thing was real without giving too much away too soon. Now here he was nearly six months later trying to talk himself back into active duty…a conversation he had never dreamed he’d be having when he’d signed his latest round of retirement papers a year ago. 

Kinsey was indeed in the White House as Vice President, a fact that still made Jack twitch with aggravation. Thus began Phase Two: revealing the fact that Anubis was burning a path across the galaxy to their door and the only way to save Earth was to find another headsucker thingy that would download the knowledge of the Ancients into his brain…again. Jack was hoping the fact that he was actually willing to live through that twice was proof enough that he believed Daniel’s premonition whole heartedly. 

His speech to Hammond started off with “Now this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out…” and ended with “I wouldn’t be telling you any of this if I wasn’t sure…”. 

“How sure, Jack?”

“Sure enough that I want to check out the gate coordinates.” He said. “If the repository thing is there then we’ll have proof. If it isn’t then…then I don’t know.”

Hammond sat in silence long enough to make Jack suspect he was looking for a polite way to turn him down. Instead he hit the intercom and asked Sergeant Harriman to bring him the paperwork to recall Jack to active duty.

“It might only be for one mission, but…welcome back, Colonel.” He added.

 

~~~~

 

Daniel sat on the back porch listening to the sounds of the night insects, Lady sleeping soundly at his feet. He didn’t spend much time sleeping lately, at least not on purpose. The long moments spent dozing before actually drifting off left too much time to think and he tried to do as little of that as possible. At least not the random, wandering kind of thinking.

Jack was gone. Had been for three months and the concept ate away at him at every opportunity. It was his fault. It had been his premonition that had started the whole mess. He had sent Jack off to find the Ancient repository knowing it could very well lead to disaster. There was no one else to blame for the fact that Jack was currently frozen in stasis in the Antarctic, his brain overloaded with information. The guilt was almost unbearable. The knowledge that Jack wasn’t actually dead offered minimal comfort. So did the understanding that neither of them had had any choice. The fate of the planet had been hanging in the balance. Like it or not Anubis had been on the way. Like it or not they were the only ones capable of stopping him. Well he didn’t like it. Not at all, but that was reality. Sometimes it was just ugly and frustrating.

As he did every time the unpleasant topic came up, Daniel pushed it aside and tried to focus on something else. Anything else. Sitting in the quiet of the only place Jack had been willing to leave him, he turned his attention to the chirping crickets and moaning frogs of the Minnesota wilderness. He wouldn’t have minded some human company, but the lack of it was exactly the reason Jack had left him there. If word of his new abilities got out people would be looking for him. With his premonitions being the one thing that had led them to the Ancient knowledge in the first place, the concept that he might become a target had been a very real possibility. Jack might not have had the ability to see the future, but he had always had good instincts. Something told him the mission wasn’t going to be nearly as cut and dried as they had planned so he had made a contingency plan. He had been right. Earth had been saved, but Jack’s fate still hung in the balance.

So, there Jack was in a pod in the Antarctic under heavy guard. Here Daniel was on the back porch with his ever present bodyguard, Lady and for both of them there was nothing left to do, but wait and hope that Sam and Teal’c could find a way to release Jack; hope there was something left of Jack when they did. And maybe, just maybe they’d finally get their happily ever after ending.


End file.
